Washington's heroics spurs Lions

LOWER OXFORD – It was all there for the Lincoln men’s basketball squad on Saturday: a loud, enthusiastic crowd at jam-packed Manuel Rivero Gymnasium; an opportunity to solidify second place in the CIAA Northern Division; and a gutsy backup guard to finish it off with several late game heroics.

The Lions visibly missed injured leading scorer Kenny Sharpe down the stretch, but Derrick Washington filled in to almost single handedly deliver a 60-59 overtime thriller for the home team over arch-rival Bowie State. The junior sent the game into the extra session with a clutch 3-pointer, then won it with a dramatic 3-point play with time about to expire. And that gave the big crowd an excuse to storm the court, kicking off a wild post-game celebration.

“We’re just blessed the basketball gods saw fit to bestow on us this win,” said Lincoln’s second-year head coach John Hill.

“The atmosphere was incredible. I can remember clearly when I first came here, by halftime people would actually be leaving the game. What we’ve done over the last couple years is draw some interest with our student body and people in the community.”

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With four games remaining in the regular season, LU is now 4-2 in the division (13-9 overall), just one game behind first place Elizabeth City State.

“We have three of the last four at home and hopefully if we can play well enough, maybe we’ll have an opportunity to see if we can challenge for a division title,” Hill said.

It was a defensive slugfest on Saturday, with both sides struggling to make a third of its shots from the field. Sharpe, and his 16.1 points per game average, exited the game for good after twisting an ankle in the first half, and that certainly didn’t help. But every time it started to look a bit hopeless for the Lions, Washington came through.

“Derrick’s been playing extremely big over the last five games or so,” Hill said. “He is very capable and could start on a lot of other teams. But we have some good guards and it’s nice that if you take one out, we have others we can put in there.”

With the game seemingly slipping away at the end of regulation, Washington bailed out the Lions with a clutch 3-pointer with 26.1 on the clock, to send it to overtime -- but not before the LU defense forced the Bulldogs to miss twice in the closing seconds.

“Kenny (Sharpe) said something to me toward the end of the game that I needed to step up, so coming from him, that meant a lot,” Washington acknowledged.

And then, with time running out in the OT and Lincoln trailing by two, Washington drove into the lane, flipped a shot in off the glass to tie it at 59-59 with 1.7 seconds remaining, and was fouled. A year ago against BSU, Washington missed a similar game-tying opportunity.

“I owed (Bowie State) from last year,” he said. “I missed that same exact shot last year so it was big for me.”

Following a timeout, Washington then calmed his nerves enough to sink the pressure-filled game winner from the free throw line.

“That free throw was hard,” Washington admitted. “I was by myself with everybody watching. But I had to make that one. And when it went through, it felt like my prayer was answered. We needed this win.”

With a little help from the Bulldogs in the form of two untimely technical fouls, the Lions rallied in each half and led by as much as eight with 12 minutes remaining. But without Sharpe down the stretch, Lincoln seemed to have little offensive flow and Bowie State regained the lead, 53-50, in the final minute of regulation thanks to a 17-6 run. That set up Washington’s game-saving shot, followed by his game-winner.

“We just never found a true rhythm offensively,” Hill said. “Nothing we could hang our hat on, and Bowie did a great job keeping us off balance. Somehow, someway, we just kind of grinded and found a way to will ourselves to this win.”